COLLEGE FOOTBALL TOURMissouri wants more than North title

Published 5:00 am, Friday, August 15, 2008

Missouri QB Chase Daniel threw for a school record 4,306 yards last season.

Missouri QB Chase Daniel threw for a school record 4,306 yards last season.

Photo: Eric Gay, AP

Missouri looks to bring home Big 12 football title

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His efforts, which had Missouri not only in the running for its first Big 12 championship but remarkably in the BCS national title contention late into the year, maybe were enough to position the Tigers junior quarterback for early entry into the NFL. Such talk was of little interest to Chase Daniel.

“I was always coming back unless I was a top-round pick or something like that,” said Daniel, a product of prep football power Southlake Carroll. “I felt like we had some unfinished business.”

The Tigers spent a brief moment as the No. 1 team in the nation after winning the Big 12 North division before seeing all come unglued with a disappointing 38-17 loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game. But with their record-setting quarterback back in the saddle after becoming a Heisman Trophy finalist, six of his top eight targets returning and a defense that brings back 10 starters, Missouri is setting the stage to pick up right where it left off last season.

Fixing the ending

Daniel doesn’t hesitate to mention the Tigers’ first goal is to bring home the program’s first Big 12 championship.

“We didn’t even reach our goal last year,” Daniel said. “We won the North and were ranked No.1 in the nation but we lost in the Big 12 championship game. We want to fix that.”

Most believe that will be easy to do with Daniel returning in control of Missouri’s high octane spread attack. The Tigers are favored to again win the North division after a masterful season in which Daniel set school single-season records for total offense (4,559 yards), passing yards (4,306 yards) and touchdown passes (33).

“Definitely last year set the foundation for what we’re trying to do this year,” Daniel, who guided the Tigers to a 12-2 record (7-1 in the Big 12) in his second season as the starter. “It was exciting last year. It was a once in a lifetime season and we’re trying to do it again this year.”

Daniel said the accolades, which has him as possible Heisman Trophy contender, are nice, but is not the motivating factor of his senior season.

“That’s second to the team,” he said. “You look at a team and quarterbacks are judged one thing and that’s wins.

“It doesn’t matter about (the) Heisman or anything. The only thing that is important to me is to go out there and be the best I can for our team.”

Being in this position might have seemed unimaginable for the Tigers a few years ago, but in seven seasons, Gary Pinkel has managed to transform Missouri from a Big 12 bottom-feeder to a serious BCS title contender behind the success of Daniel and former quarterback Brad Smith.

Difference maker

“Football is the greatest team sport there has ever been, except for one position,” said Pinkel, whose team romped past Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl. “We all know at the quarterback position, that guy has got to be special if you want to win. That guy has got to be a difference-maker type player if you want to win a Big 12 championship or go on to the BCS.

“When a quarterback plays at the level that Chase does, it increases your chances of winning. He had good people around him a year ago and he’s got good people around him this year. We all know one guy won’t be the difference at this level but if you want to win championships, you need a guy who can take it to another level and Chase does that for us.”

Daniel has been at the forefront of pushing the Tigers where many thought they never would be.

“I didn’t think it would happen last year. I thought it would happen this year when we got everything ready,” Daniel said. “It’s a tribute to how hard we worked.

“It happened kind of fast, but I knew we were going to be good. We did it a little faster than I thought we would.”